1. The little girl was hardly being racist- how is “yellow” any more offensive than “black” or “white?” It was a different time- even John and Yoko used the term in Happy Christmas- War is Over.
2. People who rely upon folk etymology are ignorant and clearly have no interest in actually checking their facts. “Yellow,” as in “cowardly,” has nothing to do with race, anymore than “niggardly” has to do with black people, “the rule of thumb” has to do with wife beating and “picnics” has to do with lynching. People simply like making that s*** up so that those people who are a combination of over-sensitive and foolish will go around spreading it. As “Cecil Adams” says, “Political correctness should always take a back seat to actual correctness.”

The question itself is racist. The term yellow referring to a coward started many years ago as a slur toward the Chinese immigrant laborors in this country-thought to be cowards because they were so submissive and tolerant in their behavior toward their American employers. The little girl wasn`t that far off, but still…….